He who thinks we are to pitch our tent here, and have attained the utmost prospect of reformation that the mortal glass wherein we contemplate can show us, till we come to beatific vision, that...

Many a man lives a burden to the Earth, but a good book is the precious life-blood of a master spirit, imbalmed and treasured up on purpose to a life beyond life.

But first whom shall we sendIn search of this new world, whom shall we findSufficient? Who shall tempt, with wand’ring feetThe dark unbottomed infinite abyssAnd through the palpable obscure find outHis uncouth way, or spread...

Such sweet compulsion doth in music lie.

In yonder nether world where shall I seekHis bright appearances or footstep trace?For though I fled him angry, yet recalledTo life prolonged and promised race I nowGladly behold though but His utmost skirtsOf glory, and...

Thou canst not touch the freedom of my mind.

For books are not absolutely dead things, but do contain a potency of life in them to be as active as that soul was whose progeny they are; nay, they do preserve as in a...

How charming is divine Philosophy! Not harsh, and crabbed as dull fools suppose, But musical as is Apollo’s lute, And a perpetual feast of nectar’d sweets, Where no crude surfet raigns.

Infernal world, and thou profoundest HellReceive thy new Possessor: One who bringsA mind not to be chang’d by Place or Time.The mind is its own place, and in it selfCan make a Heav’n of Hell,...

th’ unconquerable will,/ And study of revenge, immortal hate,/ And courage never to submit or yield/ And what is else not to be overcome?

Where the bright seraphim in burning rowTheir loud uplifted angel trumpets blow.

Shalt thou give law to God, shalt thou disputeWith Him the points of liberty who madeThee what thou art and formed the pow’rs of Heav’nSuch as He pleased and circumscribed their being?

For so I created them free and free they must remain.

A broad and ample road, whose dust is gold,And pavement stars—as starts to thee appearSoon in the galaxy, that milky wayWhich mightly as a circling zone thou seestPowder’d wiht stars.

I will not deny but that the best apology against false accusers is silence and sufferance, and honest deeds set against dishonest words.

All is best, though we oft doubt, what the unsearchable dispose, of highest wisdom brings about.

But say I could repent and could obtaineBy Act of Grace my former state: how soonwould higth recal high thoughts; how soon unsaywhat feign’d submission swore: ease would recantvows made in pain, as violent and...

Our state cannot be severed, we are one,One flesh; to lose thee were to lose myself.

Thou therefore on these Herbs, and Fruits, and Flow’rsFeed first, on each Beast next, and Fish, and Fowl, No homely morsels, and whatever thingThe Scyth of Time mows down, devour unspar’d, Till I in Man...

Frei ist, wer der Vernunft gehorcht.

Every cloud has a silver lining

Here at lastWe shall be free;the Almighty hath not builtHere for his envy, will not drive us hence:Here we may reign secure, and in my choiceTo reign is worth ambition though in Hell:Better to reign...

A grateful mind by owing owes not, but still pays, at once indebted and discharged; what burden then?

Sweet Echo, sweetest nymph that liv’st unseenWithin thy airy shellBy slow Meander’s margent green,And in the violet-imbroider’d valeWhere the love-lorn nightingaleNightly to thee her sad song mourneth well:Canst thou not tell me of a gentle...

Immortal amarant, a flower which onceIn paradise, fast by the tree of life,Began to bloom; but soon for man’s offenceTo heaven removed, where first it grew, there grows,And flowers aloft, shading the fount of life,And...

Oh goodness infinite, goodness immense!That all this good of evil shall produce,And evil turn to good; more wonderfulThan that which by creation first brought forthLight out of darkness! Full of doubt I stand,Whether I should...

Father, I do acknowledge and confessThat I this honor, I this pomp have broughtTo Dagon, and advanc’d his praises highamong the Heathen round; to God have broughtDishonor, obloquy, and op’d the mouthsOf Idolists, and Atheists[…]The...

Not so on Man; him through their malice fall’n,Father of Mercy and Grace, thou didst not doomSo strictly, but much more to pity incline:No sooner did thy dear and only SonPerceive thee purpos’d not to...

The end then of learning is to repair the ruins of our first parents by regaining to know God aright, and out of that knowledge to love him, to imitate him, to be like him,...

A dungeon horrible, on all sides round, As one great furnace flamed; yet from those flames No light; but rather darkness visible Served only to discover sights of woe

For Man to tell how human life began is hard; for who himself beginning knew?

Henceforth an individual solace dear; Part of my Soul I seek thee, and thee claim My other half: with that thy gentle hand Seisd mine, I yielded, and from that time see How beauty is...

What hath night to do with sleep?

Whose but his own? ingrate, he had of meeAll he could have; I made him just and right,Sufficient to have stood, though free to fall.Such I created all th’ Ethereal PowersAnd Spirits, both them who...

how wearisomEternity so spent in worship paidTo whom we hate. Let us not then pursueBy force impossible, by leave obtain’d Unacceptable, though in Heav’n, our stateOf splendid vassalage, but rather seekOur own good from our...

Be strong, live happy and love, but first of allHim whom to love is to obey, and keepHis great command!

Our torments also may in length of timeBecome our Elements.

So spake the Seraph Abdiel faithful found,Among the faithless, faithful only hee;Among innumerable false, unmov’d,Unshak’n, unseduc’d, unterrifi’dHis Loyaltie he kept, his Love, his Zeale;Nor number, nor example with him wroughtTo swerve from truth, or change...

From morn to noon he fell, from noon to dewy eve, a summer’s day; and with the setting sun dropped from the zenith like a falling star.

The goal of all learning is to repair the ruin of our first parents.

Yet not so strictly hath our Lord impos’d /Labor, as to debar when we need /Refreshment, whether food, or talk between,/ food of the mind, or this sweet intercourse/Of looks and smiles, for smiles from...

Should God create another Eve, and IAnother Rib afford, yet loss of theeWould never from my heart; no no, I feelThe Link of Nature draw me: Flesh of Flesh,Bone of my Bone thou art, and...

And of the sixth day yet remainedThere wanted yet the master work, the endOf all yet done: a creature who not prone And brute as other creatures but enduedWith sanctity of reason might erect His...

…So little knowsAny but God alone to value rightThe good before him but perverts best thingsTo worst abuse or to their meanest use.

One sip of this will bathe the drooping spirits in delight, beyond the bliss of dreams.

Some natural tears they dropped, but wiped them soon; The world was all before them, where to choose their place of rest, and Providence their guide: They hand in hand with wand’ring steps and slow,...

Neither man nor angel can discern hypocrisy, the only evil that walks invisible except to God alone.

Freely we serveBecause we freely love, as in our willTo love or not; in this we stand or fall.

In those vernal seasons of the year, when the air is calm and pleasant, it were an injury and sullenness against Nature not to go out, and see her riches, and partake in her rejoicing...

Never can true reconcilement grow where wounds of deadly hate have pierced so deep…